Irish Film Institute -International Film Directory

Hostage to the Devil

Martin Stalker, 90 minutes, 2016

A child possessed. An exorcist locked in combat with an ancient evil. Using firsthand interviews, dramatic reconstruction, archival evidence and Martin’s own words, this documentary film tells the true story of Father Malachi Martin, and asks, in the battle for…

Housewife of the Year

Ciaran Cassidy, 76 minutes, 2024

Between 1969 and 1995, women all over Ireland competed to win the Housewife of the Year, a competition celebrating “cookery, nurturing, and basic household management skills”. Broadcast on RTÉ from 1982, the programmes featured not just the competition itself but…

How to Defuse a Bomb: The Project Children Story

Des Henderson, 90 minutes, 2016

In 1975 Irish immigrant Denis Mulcahy of the NYPD bomb squad began a scheme offering children from Northern Ireland respite from the Troubles. Project Children ultimately brought more than 20,000 Catholic and Protestant children to suburban USA for summer-long visits…

How to Fall in Love in a Pandemic

Michael-David McKernan, 11 minutes, 2020

A capsule romance accelerates dramatically against the backdrop of the pandemic as two filmmakers are forced to move in together after two weeks of knowing each other. Awards: Best Short Documentary, Galway Film Fleadh 2020

How to Tell a Secret

Anna Rodgers,
Shaun Dunne., 100 minutes, 2022

Robbie Lawlor was diagnosed with HIV at 21 and became one of the youngest people to come out on Irish television. Enda McGrattan, also known as Veda, promised to keep their HIV status a secret but eventually broke free with…

The Hunger: The Story of the Irish Famine

Ruán Magan, 90 minutes, 2020

Narrated by Liam Neeson, this landmark documentary marks the 175th anniversary of the start of the Great Irish Famine and provides a comprehensive guide to one of most defining moments in Irish history which led to the loss of over…

Hydebank

Ross McClean, 17 minutes, 2019

In an encounter between innocence and assumed evil we witness the daily struggles of an imprisoned 21-year-old.

I am Belfast

Mark Cousins, 84 minutes, 2015

Part documentary, part reverie, I Am Belfast is Mark Cousins’ film exploration of the city he calls home. Incorporating contemporary dream-like sequences, archival film and a haunting score by David Holmes, the film portrays the city in an ethereal light not…

I Must Away

Dennis Harvey, 75 minutes, 2023

Dennis left Ireland in the midst of the global financial crisis in order to find work abroad. Hashem was a politician in Bangladesh, but had to flee for Spain after a change in government and threats on his life. Alicia…

Search

Search multiple categories